Two trips with more humpbackmania!
- Bob Perry
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
2025 04-17 SB Channel
It was a cool trip today, in more ways than one. In terms of weather, skies were overcast and there was a light breeze that kept temperatures down a bit. In terms of sightings, it was a phenomenal day in our neck of The Channel: 9+ active humpback whales. All of the action today was located south of The Kelp Farm, which was between 8 and 10 miles south of The Harbor. We ran a 9 AM and a 12 noon excursion.
On the morning adventure we were cruising along south of The Farm looking for wildlife when a humpback whale popped up suddenly. We watched it for a while, but soon a pair of large adults were spotted nearby. These large whales were busy surface feeding via sideways lunges. Additional whales were seen in the distance offshore from our location. Meanwhile, in the direction of The Harbor, there was some breaching going on. When we got on location we found a juvenile that breached nonstop for over a half an hour at which point we had to leave and get back to the dock. Breaching was in interspersed with sideways swimming and plenty of pectoral fin slapping.
We kicked off the afternoon by running directly out to find the same two sideways lunge feeding whales that we watched on the morning excursion. They were still at it. Soon 2 additional whales came into the area and joined the mostly sideways, once in a while vertical, surface lunge feeding. Finally, as with the morning adventure, we relocated the very active juvenile breaching whale. Yes, it was still breaching and slapping its pecs. (While this is a huge energy expenditure, to be breaching pretty much nonstop for two hours or more, research has shown that juvenile humpbacks MUST breach and slap their pectoral fins regularly. It helps with the formation of myoglobin, an oxygen storing molecule in their muscle tissues that come in handy during adulthood).
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry